Reply Real Estate/ lead generation / fraud

Reply Real Estate service rep called to sell their lead generation service. I did not sign up for their services, did not receive any services, nor did I have access to their system to access any leads. Several weeks later two charges were placed on my credit card by Reply Real Estate.

Reply credited one of the charges, acknowledging that I did not enroll in their program, but refused to credit the second charge claiming that it was a non-refundable fee.

I've been working for 3 months to get this resolved.

Warning to anyone checking out this company. Unauthorized charges were placed on my account. Do not trust what any service rep presents in their phone sales pitch.

There are numerous companies out there which offer lead generation. Find one which is credible and adheres to reputable business practices. Reply! Inc, aka Reply Real Estate is not one of those companies.

Comments

Reply Inc. is using the Internet offering a service to Real Estate agents which is deceptive. I bought the service yesterday and immediately noticed they were sending leads to more than 1 agent but when asked they stated they do not or it might have been a mistake… The sole lead they sent to me was unreal... The purchase price did not match the prices of this area. They charge for every lead they send... After I noticed there was something funny about the service, by e-mail, a couple of hours after I did my purchase, I asked to be terminated and refunded my $49. Ms. Colette Munker is refusing to do so. I hope this helps others not to be taken by such a fraud.

Thank you both SOO much for posting this! I was on the phone with a rep from their company, and did some internet research and found these postings- and hung up. I wish more people would post a complaint when things like this happen- it would save so many from having to go through grief!

If you said no to the service, and never signed up and did not have any access to the system; how could they possibly have gotten your credit card information to place the charges???
An no need to work 3 months on something like this, contact the bank your card is from and tell them it is an unauthorized charge, they will take care of removing it from your bill.

So you never signed up for anything, and never had any access to their system, and yet somehow they got your credit card information out of your wallet over the phone? Seems like you may be the one to blame here- furthermore, if you never took on a single lead from them, how can you possibly have any idea as to their ability to perform? You gave out your credit card information over the phone and then proceeded to not allow them to provide you with any leads. I have been receiving leads from Reply! for quite some time now and have been absolutely thrilled with the results. I've closed two deals and made $7.5K and $6K respectively from each of them in a matter of 4 months with another on the way. If you thought highly enough of them initially to give out your credit card information, I think perhaps you should have given them a chance to perform. It seems to be working exceedingly well for me.

I just signed on with reply without talking to an agent, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and try it first. I'm sure any company who goes into business would clearly want to do the right thing and service their clients, Right?
I trust Reply will do me right.

Be careful with Reply! I was sold one thing over the phone (monthly service fee) and after over $700 of charges found out that they also charge per lead! I asked specifically about this and the sales person straight out lied to me. My leads were extremely disappointing on top of it. They do not screen leads, I had 2 brokers actually sign up and sent to me as leads. One person has their house listed with another agent and most of them didn't have valid emails or phone numbers. Frustrating and a HUGE waste of resources and time. BUYER BEWARE! Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the 2 positive comments made are sales representatives from REPLY. That is how much I trust their services.

This company is definitely a scam. I was contacted by a rep saying that they were waiving the monthly fee and only charging for good leads that were pre-screened and that if there were any problems with any of the leads, you could return it for credit within 72 hours. I agreed and they said they would send up to 10 leads per month. 6 days and 18 leads later, I had caught on and cancelled. 7 of the leads were either bogus numbers, bogus e-mail addresses, houses already listed and not interested in talking to a Realtor or people who just filled out a form in order to look at houses on-line but had no intention of buying / selling. I did get those credited however, what they don't tell you is that "non-reponsive" leads WON'T be credited. In other words, you get charged for the people that don't call back and don't answer your e-mails. They inundate you with leads and by the time you figure out what is happening and cancel, your already way in the hole to them. After 6 days of junk "leads", I got a lovely $605 credit card charge. I'm just in the beginning stages of my credit card dispute but based on my conversations with their customer service reps, they get this alot and are well versed in what they will need to do, say and provide to make the charges stick. I don't hold out a lot of hope that I will be successful but if I can save anybody else this headache and take a bite out of their business, it may be worth it.

I Agree with bsrinkcmo. Reply is defiantly a scam. I was not going to let them get away with this and told them I would call the police if my credit card was charged for these fake leads and they backed of charging my credit card. DON'T JOIN them. Reply is running a big scam!!!

Company is definately a SCAM!!! They don't have credible leads and they don't screen anything. I feel like I have been taken by a true con artist. Don't get sucked in by their smooth talking sales people. They will tell you anything to get you to give them your credit card number. SCAM...SCAM...SCAM

Wow... I have a voice message from Dana at Reply saying that she has a Client came to her website and was looking to do purchase in Phoenix. I called back and left her a voicemail to call me back. Right after I hung up the phone, I went straight to Google and found you guys. Thank you very much guys! This definitely helps. I am not going to talk to them again.
With all those complaints, I don't think I want any part of it.

While I can see your frustration, I am actually receiving good clients, while not all the time, I do get 1 or 2 per month that are either ready do business or close. I have closed 1 deal so far using thier leads and this after receiving 11 'valid' as they like to call it, leads. As for their return policy, you just have to stay on top of your account. They have credited me for 3 of my 14 leads. Am I happy, I would say satisfied and if I can get this deal to close in the next 3 weeks I will stay on their program be lean more towards happy.

I am also on the program and am doing ok with it. See i think the problem is that most agents are spoiled and not actually "sales" people. working with leads i learned i had to put in work instead of just letting people come to me. with things the way they are with the market though i tried it and its going ok. I have closed 2 out of about 26 "valid" leads. Yes i have had to send some back, i just made sure i did it in the amount of time i agreed to (3 days) but im glad i have that option. I look at it this way, about $ 1, 500 and a few cups of coffee with clients got 2 deals to close with commissions that were great. So far the investment is going well. But it is like any investment you have to watch it carefully and work at it. After all if 10 people came to me and said "i want to buy a house" what kind of agent would i be if i couldn't close one. Answer: the kind that shouldn't be...

I have been in sales all my life and in real estate 21 years. I can usually turn a stone into a sale. I have been a sales trainer and a sales manager for many years. I signed up for Reply Real Estate Service on April 4th 2009 the sales person said I had 3 days to verify the leads and could even get an extension if I needed to. Not one of the leads they sent me was a good vaild lead. Most of the people did not return calls or e-mails or the price range was so off that there was no way they could buy a property in the area they needed or anywhere near that area. They got me for the $60.00 one time sign up fee but I had to cancel my card to make sure I didn't get charged for of these bogus leads. the sales person who signs you up will promise you anything then everytime you complain about the leads they refer you to some credit agreement that I never saw or was told about. be careful!! I would never use there service!!

What i find funny is that... If you have been in sales all your life and real estate 21 years you should be able to cold call out of a phone book and sell houses... so to say that you cant sell people that acually are interested is some statement about your real sales ability. If you have people come to you and say i want this house heres my money you havnt sold anything, youve just done paper work. Try going door to door selling kirby. Thats when you really know what kind of sales person you are. Thats what i did and am now a great agent. That works the prospects i do get from 3 differant companies.

Reply is a scam. Ask them how many of their "clients" or "leads" answer the phone. I found it to be about 2/10. I bet any positive comments come from the employees of this criminal company. Try and call one your sales rep back when you have a problem. I bet the people who work here cannot answer even the simplest of real estate questions. Why should we give money to people who do not even know what we do for a living.

This company needs to be reported to the Better Business Bureau and anyone else for unfair business practice. I open my account with them ont May 28, 2009. I received 3 invalid leads, and did exactly what they required. I was still charged $164.00. I called and complained and was told to hang on there. On June 3, 2009, I called to cancel. They told me that they would freeze my account. I got the smooth talking Sales person, Micheal Foreman, stating they the company would make it up to me with all these credits. I checked my account the next day, I was charged, $109.60. I was so upset, I called and left numerous messages, no respond. I am taking this as far as I can until someone respond on when I will get my refunds. How can you cancel and still be charged? I can't beleive they are still getting away with this.

Unfortunately I didn't think to do research on Reply, Inc's reputation and manner of doing business.

I got a call from them while on vacation. Their sales rep explained that they charge $ 54.95 per valid lead. I would get credit for invalid leads. I signed up for 5 per month and told him I wanted to get no more than one per week - because payment is due within 72 hours of getting the lead. I didn't want a bunch of charges to roll up on me very early in the relationship. He said no problem.

Upon returning from vacation I looked on Active Rain and found lots of negative feedback on them. I e-mailed to tell them I wanted out. They told me I'm in for for their 30 day cancellation period.

In the first 2 days they hit me with 5 leads, in two weeks I've been billed for SEVEN leads when I asked for a maximum of FIVE per month! That's $ 384.65 in two weeks!

They've made no attempt to honor their sales rep's representations, their only replies have said that I owe within 72 hours for any leads sent. Absolutely no recogniton of the fact that their rep agreed to the one per week, 5 per month that was agreed to on the phone.

Reply Inc., or Reply Real Estate as they go by uses misrepresentation and deception. Avoid them. It will not be a good experience.

I enrolled in the service for 5 leads per month. I have put my account on inactive status twice when I was out of town. The first time was great. Rep Nyeisha Ellis and Thyrone Antonion emailed back to confirm receipt of my reguest to accept leads while I was out of town. The 2nd time however, I was still sent leads and they drafted payment causing a huge over draft to my account. I was also told I could do the 5 leads per month. I wanted 1 lead per week and an extra lead at anytime of the month. The internet rep who called me back upon enrolling confirmed that I could do that. But the deceptive scam artists at Reply Real Estate ramrod me with 5 leads in one week. On 7/9/09, I sent multiple requests to service@replyrealestate.com, nyeisha ellis and thyrone antonio to keep my account inactive until the 30 day cancellation period expires, which would be 8/8/09. I have not received any confirmations back. When I go into the system to change the leads, the option has been removed so it still says 5 leads per month and I can't change it on my own. Nyiesha and Thyrone have both stopped responding to emails and can't get either one on the phone.

The contact information I have for Thyrone is [E] Thyrone.Antonio@Reply.com
[P] 925.983.3400 ext 1002

The people are definately scammers. Over the weekend, they decided to apparently reactivate my account despite my July request and I have since received 3 leads- the 3rd being today. I have sent an email to Nyeisha, Thyrone and service each of the three times- I received an email response back from another scammer named Collette, which reads:

Colette Munkner to me
show details Aug 3 (1 day ago) Reply

Dear Shawnna:

Thank you for your email. Your request to cancel was received on July 9, 2009. We ask for a 30 day notice to cancel the account therefore your account is due to cancel on August 8, 2009. Any leads received to your account prior to this date are considered valid unless returned for invalid reasons. Thank you for allowing me to assist you today.

You can view the status of your credit requests (plus much more) by logging in to your online account management at:
http://My.ReplyRealEstate.com

... to which I replied (and still haven't received a response back yet):

Shawnna Stone to Colette
show details Aug 3 (1 day ago) Reply

Your cancellation policy doesn't state that an account has to be active prior to requesting cancellation. I emailed on 7/9/09 to keep my account inactive and cancel on August 8, . 2009.

The cancellation policy is posted as follows:

Cancellation Policy.
You may cancel the program at any time by simply emailing our service team at service@replyrealestate.com. You must provide a 30 day written notice. Your program will be cancelled 30 days from the date of notification. We believe that true success requires a long–term approach, we will not build our business by locking you into an extended contract.

I followed the policy. I am not to be charged for leads after July 9, 2009 and my account is is to be cancelled. Reply Real Estate fraudulently and unethically chose a date to reactivate my account without my consent, conveniently over a weekend in hopes that I wouldn't be checking my emails and messages I'm sure. You people are money grubbing, scam artists and I've reported you as such. I am still fixing my overdrafted bank account because of you frauds.

I am not to be charged for the leads I received over the weekend. My account has been inactive at my request since July 9, 2009. I have not sent any request, verbal nor written to Reply to reactivate my account. You are a crook.

STAY AWAY FROM REPLY REAL ESTATE! I have reported them to the BBB of Greater Richmond, the SCC of Virginia and the FTC.

Reply Real Estate is definitely a SCAM. I had the misfortune of working there for a week at the San Ramon, CA office and wished that I had found this blog before accepting the job. I had interviewed for the position of Regional Sales Executive that was advertised on Craigslist.org but, after the three days of sales training, the job turned out to be nothing more than a boiler room style of “high pressure” telemarketing. We were forced to make over 100 phone calls per day and were threatened to lose our jobs if no sales were made. We were encouraged to do what it took, to close a deal. The veteran employees that obviously bought into this SCAM were professional liars. If anyone is considering a career with Reply Real Estate, please take my advice and stay away.